Trudeau’s apology to Inuit in Iqaluit delayed over winter storm

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau‘s apology to Inuit has been delayed by a winter storm that is keeping his plane from landing in Iqaluit.

The prime minister was going to say the government is sorry for mistreating Inuit who went south for tuberculosis care in the middle of the last century, some of whom died and were buried rather than being returned to their families.

But the weather has diverted him to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, N.L., where he’ll pause before making another attempt to get to Iqaluit later today.

The event has been tentatively rescheduled for early evening, if Trudeau can be there.

The apology has been in the works for the better part of two years since Trudeau signed an Inuit-Crown partnership agreement in 2017.

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Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the organization that speaks for Inuit in Nunavut, has said it wants to help family members locate burial sites of those who died during tuberculosis treatment from the 1940s through the 1960s and whose bodies were buried in southern Canada.